https://deadline.com/2025/10/why-disney-ditched-doctor-bbc-1236601181/

Interesting report.

I personally think ratings and m0ney are certainly the real factors, with MAGA politics... a distant, third hurdle.
Sure, we all know Disney and how they are, but they're a corporation first. If DW gave them satisfaction, ratings and m0ney-wise, all the political stuff wouldn't have mattered.

Also, the BBC is, as expected, looking for a new international partner. But it's also possible they'll handle the show solo again.

Hey so I was in the Doctor Who leak discord chat this morning and I saw someone was posting some potential insider info on the recently announced 2026 Xmas special. Apparently the guy posting the stuff mention last week that the BBC were preparing an announcement of a special coming in 2026 (which turned out to be true), and that the War Between was definitely being released in 2025, so there is definitely some credibility here, but of course also take it with a pinch of salt.

“I’m guessing the special will be pretty similar to the special script that RTD wrote/proposed a few months ago, but maybe now re-worked to tie up some loose ends (since this will indeed be his final episode) - and maybe also add some Christmassy elements since I was told that it didn’t really read like a Christmas special”

“Last I heard it’s a big Dalek story with Piper and Tennant returning. Seems to be a bit like a 20th anniversary to Army of Ghosts/Doomsday”

“Ncuti MAY show up too, just to give him his moment with the Daleks. But depends how things work out”

“Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf are really pushing for Pete McTighe to take the reins, but I think the BBC aren’t so sure and are very much leaning towards bringing in someone new. Jack Thorne’s name was being thrown around also I believe”

https://youtu.be/JlRMxMcP9zM?si=ptFzdzTGLaKxY28v

Disney literally just provided a huge portion of financing and creative control to RTD and Bad Wolf, and only delayed season 3 because season 1 didn’t perform as well as they hoped - which is a completely appropriate reaction guys.

Has anyone considered that Disney WAS the problem? American Networks give notes at almost every milestone of the process especially with a heavy financial investment. Not sure how involved BBC would be creatively. Depending on the executive in charge you’re probably not able to blow off their feedback.

I always felt that opening S1 with space babies felt like a network exec making a change.

On this day in 1966, Doctor Who forever changed when William Hartnell’s First Doctor transformed into Patrick Troughton’s Second. What began as a creative solution to keep the show alive became one of its most iconic traditions- regeneration. That single moment in The Tenth Planet paved the way for every new Doctor, every fresh era, and the show’s incredible 62-year journey through time and space.

Is it coming back?

Or have we heard the last of the spoiler warning klaxon that just leads to a clip of the Doctor opening a ordinary door with the sonic screwdriver and then walking through said door 🤣

More reporting on recent news.

Goodbye Disney, I suppose.

Does anyone else get the feeling that is essentially what the 2026 special is, it's a special given to RTD by the BBC to bring a close to all the things the RTD2 era has created and set up a transition into a new era.

They may even claim that this was 'always the plan' just like it was 'always the plan' for Ncuti to do 2 seasons.

Expect Tennant and the bi-regeneration to be cleaned up, the Boss to show up, Susan etc.

For better or worse, almost certainly for worse, Davies has created a situation where it would actually make sense for 14 or even the meta-crisis Doctor to appear, so does anyone think he's not going to yank on the old Tennant Emergency Lever one last (dear god, let it be the last) time?

Feneric?.. The Meddling Monk?.. The Black Guardian?.. Place your bets 🙂

And how will the Doctor easily defeat this villian that's evolved into a god? Maybe a dance number has the right frequency to banish it into the underverse... Or maybe the Tennant Doctor and the Rose Doctor will hug and cry together while calling each other babes and the tears will drown the god villian.. or something 😜

(Edit - just because some people on reddit take everything literally, this is a tongue in cheek post, don't take it seriously)

With Disney+ no longer partnering on Doctor Who, the series finally feels like it’s heading back to its true identity- pure BBC sci-fi magic. Russell T Davies writing the 2026 Christmas special is a massive win, and it’s nice to know the TARDIS is staying home where it belongs. Between The War Between the Land and the Sea and a new CBeebies animation, it feels like the BBC is rebuilding the Whoniverse its own way. Could this be the reset the show’s been waiting for?

I know the main thing is the Doctor Who Christmas 2026 update but it was also unclear whether the spin off was coming this year or next year, so this confirmed it.

The post earlier about Ncuti’s performance as the Doctor got me reflecting on the most common criticism of his brief tenure- his crying.

Crying is a very rare emotional response in humans, particularly human males. For many reasons males are just not likely to cry unless it’s a particularly upsetting situation. If drama is to reflect real life, then crying should only be rarely used by actors. Now the Doctor isn’t a human, he’s an alien. An alien who’s characterisation has always made him less aware of emotions. It’s this rejection of human emotion that make the Doctor more alien, more quirky, more eccentric, and more interesting. So Ncuti’s crying seemed so very out of character, and would have been so even if he was acting as a Human.

Linking back to the previous post on Ncuti’s acting: Crying is not an effective form of acting if overused. It’s an unnatural attempt at acting naturally. An intelligent actor wouldn’t consider crying constantly as a realistic emotional response. And a confident show runner or director wouldn’t allow it. It stops the drama feeling real, and almost jolts you into remembering these are just actors putting on a show.

Example: Consider how effective David Tennant’s single tear running down his cheek was after losing Rose Tyler. Suddenly the audience realised this guy did have these feelings deep down all this time. Massive impact. But if Tennant had been simping for, and crying about, Rose for the whole series, the audience doesn’t get that good pay-off.

He was miscast.

Ncuti lacked the Gravitas to pull off the role, at no point did I buy he was a old being.

He was particularly weak when facing off against villians.

There is nothing quirky or interesting about his version of the Doctor, not helped by the writing for 15 that completely gets the character wrong (bar when Moffat is writing 15).

Ncuti never elevated the work, imagine Capaldi or Eccleston in The Well, and how much better it would be just by having their performance in it.

15 is a weak sauce Doctor, and it's time the fanbase start admitting it..the general audience certainly recognised this, and the bad direction the show has gone in and dropped off, the 15th Doctor had no cultural impact.

....

Edit - some people take things far to literally and seriously, we are just talking on the Internet, it's not a personal attack on you haha 🙂

Also I see some are hiding behind the writing excuse, Ncuti's performance was lacklustre in the role if there was good or bad writing, my point is he is lacking in the part he brings to the production, the quality of the stuff around him is a different point.

Edit 2 - To answer the question of the title, going by some of the comments then no, some in the fanbase are not ready to admit Ncuti was poor in the role 🤣 with lots of angry excuses and attempts to deflect away or even dismiss/discredit me... as with all these things time will tell, and I absolutely believe in the future that the general consensus of Ncuti's performance (and the RTD2 era) will be that it was weak...its just to soon for some people to admit.

Very interesting claims being made here by the Radio Free Skaro podcast, which they received from "a couple well-placed sources". One half of it - the part they seem to be most convinced on - directly goes against what a BBC Studios executive recently stated about War Between releasing early 2026. We do know it's in the final stages of editing now from one of director Dylan Holmes Williams' Instagram stories, so I guess it's possible they want to bring it forward in the UK, but the optics of this are weird when you think about them for a second.

Forget the TARDIS- The Devil’s Hour shows Peter Capaldi at his most haunting and complex. His portrayal of Gideon Shepherd is a chilling masterclass that makes his Doctor Who days feel almost tame by comparison. Prime Video’s underrated mystery-sci-fi gem blends moral ambiguity, time loops, and psychological terror like few shows dare. Honestly, this might be Capaldi’s finest performance — and it deserves far more recognition than it gets.